, where the main female characters were all stick thin, was clear: If I could lose my hips, my big boobs and never eat carbs, all my dreams would come true.
The thing was, not only did I love food, but I was also naturally large chested and had wide hips. Looking back, I wasn’t overweight, but, in the words of Jarvis Cocker, I was the first girl at school to get breasts.It took until I became a parent to finally make peace with how my body looked because it had nurtured my babies and kept me alive when I almost died post-birth. Being there to watch my kids grow up made everything else seem unimportant.
However, after a knee injury stopped me from running – something I did three times a week – and a career change meant that I was now working from home sitting at a computer, I became far more sedentary, resulting in an even thicker waist. The messaging around bodies is vastly more positive these days, but while the people around me say I am fine just as I am, I want to get back to the days of getting off the floor without my joints creaking and I would love to wear my clothes again.